Burnley top the table after maximum-point weekend

A narrow escape for Vishal Tripathi against Enfield at Turf Moor on Saturday

Published:16:30Monday 27 April 2015

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Burnley sit top of the Fosters Lancashire League table – by two points from Lowerhouse – after making it three wins from three games over the weekend.

Burnley entertained Enfield at My Protein Turf Moor on Saturday.

Enfield won the toss and inserted the hosts, with rain in the air, and a 15-minute delay to the game, but they soon gained an early success with the wicket of professional Chris Holt for four. A partnership of 36 took the score to 56, with Vishal Tripathi anchoring the innings ,and David Brown (20) starting to accelerate until he was bowled by Tiarnan Hamill.

Dan Pickup took up the attack but was dismissed for 24 caught in the deep, and with Chris Burton falling for seven, Burnley were 127-4 when Bharat Tripathi joined his brother to take the score to 161.

Vishal then holed out for a well-composed knock of 78. With 10 overs left, Burnley looked to up the tempo, with rain looking to end the innings at any time, and Bharat scored 42 off 34 balls before being run out towards the end. A late clatter of wickets fell to leave Burnley on 221-9 off their 48 overs.

Rain delayed the start for the Enfield innings and reduced it to a 44-over game, with a revised total of 208.

Graham Lalor once again produced an economical start with his bowling, only going for 12 off six overs, but it was Cole Hayman, coming on first change, which provided the cutting edge as he took out the top three. with two good slip catches as Steve Brunt caught opener Liam Bedford and Brown caught sub professional Price. Jhangir Liaqat got a wicket and could have had more (1-18 off seven).

Holt and Bharat Tripathi got to work and shared three wickets, but Enfield tried to stop the home side getting the two points for bowling them out, and it was Tom Lawson (2-22 off five) who made sure this happened with two wickets in one over, and Hayman got the last wicket to finish with 4-40 off seven to claim maximum points.

Sunday saw the weather improve, and under blue skies Burnley travelled to Church and were inserted into bat. They were soon in trouble as they slipped to 29-3 with the loss of Holt (2), Tripathi (17) and Pickup (1). Chris Burton (15) joined Brown and moved the score to 67, but then Burton fell, leaving Brown to continue to dominate the innings with some hard hitting.

Bharat Tripathi came in and scored 24, and some hard hitting from Liaqat (26 not out) took the score to 207 ,with Brown scoring a magnificent 98, narrowly missing out on a deserved century.

In reply, Liaqat took the important wicket of Wolfenden at 22, but home professional Usman Tariq (51) looked to be steering his side to victory. At drinks Church were 87-3, with Lawson taking 1-49 and Pickup 1-28, but Liaqat, straight after drinks, had a devastating spell which reduced Church from 103-3 to 107-7 , taking best figures of 5-33 off 13 overs. There was a 51 ninth-wicket partnership which moved the home side to 30 runs, taking advantage of the short boundary, but Holt (2-48) and Tripathi (1-1) ensured Burnley again took maximum points.

Burnley entertain Ramsbottom on Saturday and then travel to Colne on Sunday in anther double header weekend.